1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to document security in an image producing device and more specifically, to security against the unintentional purge of sensitive output from a previous copy machine or printer job which purge may provide access to the sensitive output by unauthorized operators.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image producing devices, such as copiers and printers, which possess multiple output destinations such as duplex trays and multiple finisher stations (e.g. stapler or binder stations), present potential information security problems in sensitive installations due to the possibility of leaving extra or unusable output in the machine at the end of a job. Access to such a machine by unauthorized operators should be limited whenever the potential exists for the machine to "purge" out copies or prints left over from some previous job.
Most modern image producing machines possess, at minimum, some form of dedicated internal duplex or multi- purpose intermediate receiver tray to facilitate the production of complex output jobs. In addition, most machines which fall into this category also possess multiple output destinations such as sorters and finishers working together with "sample" (unfinished and unsorted) output trays. Such machines typically possess facilities to automatically clear themselves of or "purge" unusable output left over from some previous job whenever a new job is initiated and some necessary facility of the machine currently contains such unusable output. Examples of necessary machine facilities include the types of intermediate and final output destinations already described.
Also common in such machines is an ability to automatically perform post-jam automatic purges of unusable output from the paper path in order to facilitate efficient single point jam clearance. Although very useful and productive in most customer settings, such forms of automatic purge of waste output from previous jobs may represent a potential compromise of sensitive documents in certain environments. For example, such sensitive material may appear at some future time as part of the waste material being automatically eliminated in the process of running a totally new job with a different operator or in a different job setting.